Today in solemn contemplation and hearts filled with empathy and love, 13 Goodgym runners from Brent, ran through postcodes and 2 neighbour boroughs, to give what we could and pay respect to the community, survivors and victims of Grenfell Tower.

It was a humbling sight to behold when my eyes fell upon the group I call my GG family who showed up in droves to run 5k to Grenfell. Running to pay respect and give what we could in donations and volunteering.

Lighting our route was the most beautiful of setting suns, which made us smile although our hearts were heavy and with a mission to Avenues Youth Centre on our minds, the run, despite the heat was swift if not a little sweaty.

Arriving at Avenues we were greeted so warmly by the manager Carol and even though this time their volunteer needs were already met, we did make some amazing contacts and perhaps arrange for one or two of our crew to support their future fundraising in the way of running the London marathon..... I just have to figure out how to convince the team to do it.

So turning on our heels again and catching the last of the glows of sun as it set over the beautiful canal, we head towards Latimer Road and the main memorial sight for Grenfell.

Now I am not littering this run report with catchy puns and tom foolery because this was so not what this run was about. We were in solidarity, in mourning and in partnership with every other human being who was and have been there, making the effort, yesterday, today and tomorrow!

In fact, just speaking with the community we understood that they would continue to need massive support for the next few weeks, if not more, especially when the media attentions will surely begin to ease off and they don't want people to forget the need that will be there. So people must continue to reach out for many weeks and months to come.

So with this in mind, we linked up with Sister Ruth, the incredible community leader who was taking charge of organisations, from the church on Latimer Road. We pledged to be back, both as individuals and as a team, because this may not be our borough, but this is our London and we must erase borough lines and postcodes, to show unity, love and understanding. To give back to this significant and life altering community cause and demonstrate we will not stand for how these people have been treated. It must be talked about, it mustn't be forgotten and it cannot happen again!

Our final goodbye was in a song, shared with some of the other mourners and Sister Ruth. We sang together Amazing Grace and as we sang, we lit our candles and said personal and quiet prayers, for all who had been lost and for all those suffering now from this terrible tragedy.

I urge you if you haven't, please go there, because no news article or TV broadcast can convey the true heartbreak of this community in mourning.

Together we stand.

18 GoodGymers ran 3k to Rhythams of Life Homeless Charity to sort, order, lift and shift 3 tonnes of donations

Starting with a flurry of DBS checks to get stuck into Missions and Coach runs we set off on our bob and weave run from Oxford Street to Rhythams of Life in Leicester Square.

1.5k of forward running with a couple of cheeky back street weaves and a whole lot of lateral dodging we arrived at the amazing building that houses Rhythams of Life to meet Farris.

After a couple of minutes of heart stopping wait for me we went in to tackle the monster pile of donations that we needed to sort, order, lift and shift.

The task was a monster and almost hard to see how to start but we did and smashed a GoodGym size dent in it!! Sorting everything from toiletries to Suits we had our work cut out and we labelled our way to success using every second of the 50 minutes we spent there!!

The final flurry to move all the ordered and labelled clothing down into the basement so we can dominate the second half of the Clothing Mountain next week!!

A big thank you from Farris, a dose of hand sanitizer and a team picture and we were off on the 1.5k dodgems run back to base!

Arriving back dead on 8pm a quick static stretch out and we were done!!

Be great to see you al again next week!! So please sign up and come along to tackle the clothing mountain!!

Smooth Running

Joel

19 GoodGym superstars ran 7k to One Big Family homeless charity in Victoria.

Great to welcome GoodGym first timers Shane, Tallula, Sylvia, Monica and Joanna as well as some top GoodGym tourists and our amazing Westminster hardcore regulars!!

Dancing, bobbing, weaving our way through the foot traffic on the busiest road in the world we soon found ourselves taking in the stunning postcard like views around Buckingham Palace. Seems like Queeny was a bit busy herself this evening with a whole load of extra security measures and traffic diversions making our job of running a bit more tricky!

Soon we had bounced past Victoria and in no time 3.5k had ticked by and we had arrived on Ebury Estate at the Lodge to meet Mike.

Dividing into 2 teams we had the food preparation specialists and the Outdoor pugilists.

The foodies got to work slicing and dicing forming a tip top production line. Tomatoes, Cheese and chutney all expertly implanted onto the the speedy spreaders rolls and bread. Obviously a night in Victoria would not be complete without normally all around Good guy Graham partaking (well kind of) in some almost criminal behaviour, by stealing food!!

Outside we had a game of oversized Tetris going on, loading the used food crates into the store for next week. Lots of alternative angles and strategies were employed to negotiate a tricky spatial awareness task.

We had some super bulb planting going on being carefully watched over by our dog cheer squad. 150 bulbs imbedded in in no time so we went on the hunt for more to do. Removing tables, clothing, concrete slabs and rubbish we got both gardens in peak condition!

With the Outdoor Pugilists all finished off Isaac lead the crew back towards home knowing the rest of us will be close behind. The Food preparation specialists flipped into overdrive and went spreading crazing! Finishing off 50 sandwiches, 60 rolls and 80 hot cross buns in record time!! With the chase on we said our goodbyes and began the run back hunting down the rest of the crew.

With a little creative road crossing and some perfect pacing we caught everyone up at Victoria station. Now with the license to feed the legs some speed the group stretched out with everyone working hard all the way up to Buckingham Palace. We had a team talk at the bottom of Green Park and decided to dominate the 800 metre drag through the park! We had a range of methods with some maintaining a consistent pace all the way while other alternated hard effort and easy running between lampposts and a few brace souls progressively turned up the pace all the way to the top!! Top endurance and effort on show top running!!

All that was left to round off a top 7k evening was a gentle run and a nice stretch out with a big and bright round of applause!!

Great to see you all!! Hope to see you all again next week when we go to Rhythams of Life to help with a building move sign up here.

If you fancy a bit more fitness fun tomorrow I am taking a Fitness 4 All session starting at 6:15 from Somerset House sign up here if you are not free tomorrow sessions will be there for the rest of the month.

Best of luck to everyone running and racing this weekend!!

Run Smooth

Joel

10 pumped up Westminster GoodGymers run 8k and moved 10k to deliver 350 flyers for Open Age charity to promote their over 50's Dance Mix class.

Spring is pretty much here!! On a mild and dry central London evening we prepared for action and discussed game plans in the almost tropical New Balance store. Heading out to the North West of the borough keeping to the quieter pedestrian roads we timed the crossings to almost perfection heading out under the Westway Flyover. As we approached the designated area we split into pairs and tried our hardest to negotiate the tricky entry systems in the flats while continually posting flyer after flyer into all inviting houses and businesses. Working our way all the way out to the boarders of the borough we decided for the last 10 minutes we would push the pace and cover Little Venice in Dance Mix glory and dominating a last flyer push as we rounded off a successful dose of flyering.

Heading back with an extra 2k of flyering movement in the legs we stuck together until we were clear of the flyover then anyone who wanted to push the pace had free license to roll on strong! James, Howard and Chris all upper the anti and sped the last 3k back at an impressive rate before looping back to join the rest of the crew and add on a bit more distance to the evening.

Some top running by everyone bagging over 4k on the way back to go with the rest of the evenings efforts! Well done Team.

Look forward to seeing you all again next week for another fun filled ** Running Adventure!!** sign up here.

Smooth Strides

Joel

10 fitness seeking GoodGymers skilfully dominated the first Fitness 4 All session of the month long stay in Islington.

On a windy evening in North London we used the bright lights of Emirates stadium to illuminate our running track for the evening.

After a 5 minute warm up jog we mobilised and activated some key running muscles and joints before beginning a series of running form drills designed to improve our running efficiency.

We worked on knee drive, foot strike and arm swing to get a taster of a few fundamental running form skills.

We then moved onto the main meat of the session where we worked on our pacing skill to repeat 3 sets of three 150m reps in exact times with the added variable of a stiff Northerly wind.

Some excellent Pacing Skills as well as ever important mental focus and determination brought us to a top work out for all runners!

A gentle warm down and static stretch out finished off a great fitness session!!

Hope to see you all again next week for some more Thursday Fitness 4 All action!

Smooth Running

Joel